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one after another, waiting their turn to be checked through the Customs

Service office there.

It might be a long wait. The cargo the trucks are hauling are part of

the $8.8 billion in goods that must be processed daily at U.S. border entry

points nationwide by the Automated Commercial System, a 17-year old computer

system that is rapidly — and some say dangerously — nearing its capacity

to handle the information.

When ACS fails or browns out, which happens at least once a month according to shipping officials, the fallout ricochets across America — in goods not getting to their destinations, in import fees not getting paid, in contraband getting smuggled into the country and in criminals not getting caught.

Part of the problem is technology. According to Customs officials, ACS

can no longer handle the increasingly complex codes on entry documents that

account for the contents of shipments. At the same time, the burgeoning

domestic economy and the tide of globalization and are putting a severe

load on the system.

In 1999 alone, the Customs Service processed over 21 million entries

totaling $1.025 trillion in goods through ACS. With imports growing at 8

percent a year, customs officials expect ACS to hit capacity early next

A two-year campaign that prompted the Department of Homeland Security to issue its first-ever emergency directive to agencies to shore up cyber defenses appears in part to have been an attempt to spy on U.S. government internet traffic.